New York Times, Saturday, January 9, 2016

As a solver, I enjoy the occasional stacked puzzle. Normally, double stacks have short vertical entries crossing the beginning and end of the longer answers. So, a good strategy is to knock out a few of those shorter answers, then use the footholds to solve the grid-spanners. My idea in creating this puzzle was to make it more challenging by leaving the corners open and instead having the short crossing answers in the middle. So, solvers will need to work from the inside out.

1-Across is a fun answer for me: I have served on a large number of thesis committees and I always focus on helping students craft a crisp and accurate thesis statement for their defense. Actually, the whole puzzle is fun to see in print, because this was my first themeless submission. Plus, the grid reminds me of a big approximately equal sign, which is just happenstance but it's a neat effect.

Beautiful work in the bottom stack. Typically at least one of the crossing answers in a quad-stack is gluey or a clunker, but Jason does very well, with A TOI the closest thing to iffy. Okay, ENSILES and ASONANT are a bit esoteric, but one can reason them out using etymology.

Speaking of reasoning, some solvers avoid puzzles with these giant open spaces because they seem impossible. Pro tip: thinking like a constructor makes them much more solvable! I got stuck in the top, so I stepped back and thought about what makes a big section easier to fill:

1. Common letters. Try guessing an A or E for a vowel, or an R, S, T, L, or N for a consonant. These letters give constructors flexibility.
2. Alternating vowel / consonant. Many words do break this pattern, but when you need to fill a large chunky section, sticking to alternation makes things much easier.

Example: [Belief in a strong central government]. I forced myself to think about point 1 — what -ISM could be made of those common letters? STATISM, perhaps? I plunked it in, and it seemed to work ... almost. So I thought about point 2 — ah, ETAT is the French word for "state," and it fits the alternation!

Look how well that continues, with EVIL / TITERS / ARAMIS / TELOS / SHAH. I liked so much this — TELOS is a toughie, but the Greek concepts are fair game, given how much they've affected Western culture.

Breaking the alternation pattern is necessary given the two Ss in THESIS STATEMENT and the TH in ROSIE THE RIVETER, and that forces an unfortunate pair: STPS (a plural which Rich Norris at the LA Times has asked me to avoid) and IERI. I like some foreign words in my crossword, especially if they're in use in English language, but IERI = not so much. At least the crossings make that workable — unlike the N in UPPER PALATINATE / MENES. Both are crossworthy answers that I felt I really should learn, but crossing them made this solver cross.

Anyway, a standout bottom quad-stack and a great brain workout.